


guide the Guide, guard the Guard

by hexxmanic



Category: Soul Eater
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Mild Gore, Trust Issues, WINGING IT, not really sure where this is going, pairings to be determined
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-26
Updated: 2016-07-26
Packaged: 2018-07-26 19:19:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7586701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hexxmanic/pseuds/hexxmanic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Only Guides are able to see kishin, corrupted souls of the deceased that prey on the living, but only Guards are able to touch them and ultimately defeat them.</p><p>Considered demanding and bossy, Guide Maka struggles to find a partner who can actually keep up with her guiding. That's when she's unwillingly paired up with Soul, a Guard who doesn't seem to trust easily in a world where trust is the difference between life and death.</p>
            </blockquote>





	guide the Guide, guard the Guard

**Author's Note:**

> First work on this site wooh!  
> I'm still not sure if I want this to be a pairing fic. I guess I'll figure it out as I go...  
> If you have any questions about the universe please PM or comment
> 
> Thanks for reading!

“Why don’t you just listen? It’s not that hard to just do what I tell you to!” she seethed, pigtails falling out of their ties and generally making a mess. Her new (and now old) partner glared at her with narrowed eyes and unrestrained anger, her usually combed down hair flying around her face in every direction.

 

“Listen? I _do_ listen! If anyone’s to blame it’s you! You’re guidance is impossible to follow!” Her hands shake near her sides, though Maka isn’t sure if it’s from anger or lingering adrenaline.

 

“That’s not true! I give very simple instructions that anyone could follow!”

 

“How could anyone follow _that?_ Your directions are everywhere! ‘Go left, no wait right, no wait _my_ right’ I doubt _you_ even know what you want to do! No wonder why you’re always partnerless!”

 

Maka grit her teeth. That had stung despite all efforts to remain callous. How _dare_ she? She had no right to talk like that after letting such a weak kishin escape. It sure as hell wasn’t Maka’s fault— she usually never took missions this low leveled, but since her partner was so inexperienced (never mind the fact that she was desperate enough to partner with such a weak Guard) she was forced to lower herself. “Well maybe if you were even half as competent as I am, my instructions would be clear! It’s not my fault that you’re too dumb to know left from right!”

 

Her partner’s cheeks flushed with indignation and her lips trembled violently. “You know what? This was never going to work. How can I even think about trusting you when you don’t even respect me?”

 

“Fine with me. A person with the skills of a 3 year old would only hold me back anyway.”

 

Tears sprung in her ex-partner’s eyes as she bit back whatever she was going to say next, instead whipping around to run out of the crumbling door while rubbing her eyes furiously. Maka scoffed. How pathetic. There was no way they could have had a functioning partnership when the Guard was so weak. She hadn’t even been able to touch the kishin let alone defeat it. How had she thought they even had a chance when she first partnered up with her? They couldn’t even land a single blow.

 

Maka sighed and ran a gloved hand through her bangs. That would be the 5th one in 3 weeks, and that was only counting this month. She sat down on a chunk of rubble and looked around the destroyed building. The cement walls that were previously whole now lay scattered around the floor, which was covered in deep scratch marks and craters. A kishin-sized hole now adorned the center of the ceiling giving a generous view of the darkening sky— the result of the kishin jumping straight through the ceiling to make its escape. It was faster than what her partner was used to, and therefore futile to try to chase down. She stared at the orange sky where the kishin had flew away.

 

Desperate for any extra curricular to boost her falling grade in field work, she had offered to pair up with one of the lower class men who was also partnerless. She hadn’t realized that the reason for it was because the girl was utterly useless at combat until she started directing her to attack the kishin. The Guard had flailed around in her nervousness and inexperience and moved to attack the kishin with her knife— _in the opposite direction._ It was all downhill from there.

 

Maka tore her gaze from the now purple sky only for it to land on the crumpled body of Miles Thalgher in the middle of the floor, a pool of blood expanding around the figure. The kishin had clawed through his chest and had ripped his ribs apart as if opening a door. They stuck out of the gaping hole in his chest like fence posts. His lungs had been carelessly tossed across the room where one had skid across the floor leaving a bloody trail and the other had stuck against the wall, his heart wrenched out of the body and torn in pieces in order to get to the soul the kishin had then devoured. His eyes stared wide eyed in horror at the monster that wasn’t there anymore. 

 

Beyond his name, Maka knew nothing about the unfortunate soul, and she didn’t want to learn anything else either. She didn’t bother trying to close his eyes for a final sense of peace. At this point, the sight of a kishin ravaged body was old news and hardly worth crying over. It was a waste of valuable time to mourn over something already lost.

 

They had gotten to the building right as the kishin had swallowed the soul into oblivion. Thinking back, Maka figured that maybe seeing the gruesome body for the first time had something to do with her partner’s truly atrocious performance. Maybe her partner’s hands had been shaking not from anger or adrenaline, but trauma. But none of that mattered anyway. If a Guard couldn’t steel themselves over a dead body, they had no business in the field.

 

She stared at her own hands, inspecting the grime and dust that had gotten smeared over her previously white gloves. _Maybe I should stop getting white gloves. They’re impossible to clean._

 

A glint of light caught her eye. A pair of crushed glasses lay in the debris where it belonged. _Must have been his…_

 

She pushed herself off of the rock and stood in the middle of the rubble, backlit by a laughing moon.

 

 

xxxxXXXXxxxx

 

 

The longest any Guard had stayed with her had been 3 missions, and even then it had been out of pure necessity. They always left complaining about how she was “too demanding” or “too bossy” and once even “too flat” (she had been more than happy to leave him at the entrance to the medbay). But that was what being a Guide was— ordering the Guard around! How could she be too demanding when it was literally her job to do so? The way she saw it, they were the ones that couldn’t keep up with her. She was, after all, top of the entire class in academics. When it came to field work Maka wasn’t lacking in physical ability, but it was the incompetence of all the Guards that left her with such low marks. Maka was confident in her ability to lead— after all, she was the one who actually saw the damn thing— but when it came to the Guard, all confidence left. She simply didn’t trust anyone but herself to do a good job— how could she when they couldn’t even figure out left from right? Maka was better off alone.

 

Which was exactly what she told Professor Stein.

 

He was unimpressed.

 

“That’s well and all, but as you know _extremely_ well that’s not how it works.”

 

He was right of course. While Maka was extremely proficient in her ability to see the kishin, top of the class even, she, as with all Guides, couldn’t touch kishin. Her fingers would reach out to grasp only to brush through the corrupted soul, leaving a trail of wispy smoke and a lingering sense of cold in her fingertips. 

 

She sighed. “Yeah. I know. I’m just… so frustrated is all.”

 

Stein blew some smoke out and Maka batted it away from her face. “I understand that you’re having trouble finding a suitable partner, but even then it you shouldn’t have had this much difficulty fighting a class D. Our first years have that much trouble with those yet you let it escape.”

 

Maka’s face flushed with humiliation. “But professor, it was—” 

 

He narrowed his eyes. “Both Guard and Guide are to blame equally. In this field, trust and accountability are crucial. You’re a brilliant student and a talented Guide but if you can’t find a partner who you can actually work with, there’s no room for you at shibusen. Do you understand?”

 

Her head hung low as she stared at the cuffed toes of the boots. “Yes professor.”

 

Stein closed his eyes and sighed, blowing out a large amount of smoke. “I don’t want to sound so harsh, and I don’t want to lecture you on what you already know, but that’s the truth.” Tightening the screw on his head, he put out his cigarette and dismissed her. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning at class.”

 

She closed the door behind her and walked down the long white hallways dimly lit by rows of candles. It was way past school hours. The hallways were empty except for the flickering shadows that filled the path. Maka made her way down briskly, tugging her off-white gloves off of her hands and shoving them into her coat pockets. She had always known that she was in threat of expulsion unless she was able to find a stable partner but for the professor to put it in her face so bluntly made the threat seem much more imminent. Much more… real. 

 

“Stupid,” she grumbled. “Stupid, stupid, stupid—”

 

The door in front of her swung outwards without warning. The next thing she knew, Maka was sprawled on the ground clutching her bleeding nose and cursing her terrible day, her terrible luck, the terrible person who opened the door _so suddenly who was here at this hour?_

 

“Oh, my bad. You okay?”

 

She slowly opened her eyes to see a lightly tanned hand held in front of her. Her gaze traveled up the arm to meet with

 

 _Red_.

 

Red eyes. Like blood. Creepy.

 

She snapped out of her reverie and stood up, ignoring the outstretched hand. His arm dropped to his side once he saw that she wasn’t going to acknowledge it, and from there went into his yellow jacket pocket. Maka brushed herself off while still holding her throbbing nose and glared at the offender. Slouched posture, messy disheveled _white_ (White hair. Like bone. Creepy. Who would bleach their hair _white?_ Did he think it looked cool?) hair, the boy screamed careless and lazy, two things that she wanted to distance from herself as far as possible. It seemed like in a last ditch effort to tame his hair he had slapped on a headband, although it really didn’t look like it did him much good.

 

“Watch where you’re going!” (even though she knew it was an accident and it really wasn’t his fault but it had been a _really_ bad day and she was _really_ pissed) she snapped, although it probably sounded nasally since her nose was _still bleeding._

 

His eyes widened a bit in surprise before narrowing, mouth in a sneer. _Sharp teeth? How much creepier can a person get?_ “Watch where _I’m_ going? You’re the one running through the halls like an idiot! I was just opening the door!” he slouched in on himself even more and his hands deeper into his pockets. 

 

“I’m not running! And I’m not an idiot!”

 

He scoffed. “Whatever.” He glowered at her before moving away from the door and walking in the direction she had come from. 

 

“Asshole,” she grit and angrily stomped down the hall. “Stupid, stupid, stupid…”

 

 

xxxxXXXXxxxx

 

 

“HA HA HA, did the kishin punch you in the nose or something as a farewell present?”

 

Maka groaned and turned around from the bulletin board. “Shut up Blackstar. It’s none of your business.”

 

Blackstar grinned even wider. “Ooohh looks like someone’s a bit sore from failure.”  
  
“Not like you’re any better. At least I’ve actually completed a mission, unlike you,” she spit out. Yes, she was sore. No, she wasn’t going to let him know.

 

He put his hands behind his head with an entirely too smug expression. “What can I say? There just aren’t any missions that are good enough for a god.”

 

“That makes no sense whatsoever.”

 

Tsubaki caught up to them. “Blackstar, stop bothering Maka! You don’t have any room to talk about incomplete missions!” she scolded. He grumbled unhappily and moved to crossed his arms across his chest. “Sorry about that Maka,” she laughed sheepishly. “I hope he wasn’t too rude.”

 

“It’s fine,” she reassured, even though it wasn’t but Tsubaki didn’t deserve to take the brunt of Maka’s irritation. She scratched at the itchy gauze across her nose. Her personal meeting with the door had actually broken her nose much to her annoyance. She had had to set it herself in the middle of the night with only her cat Blair as company.

 

“Oh by the way,” Tsubaki started, snapping Maka out of her train of thoughts. She usually wasn’t this spacey but she hadn’t had much sleep the night before… “professor Stein was looking for you. I think he has an assignment for you but I’m not sure.”

 

“For me?” Maka’s eyes widened in surprise. For her? Personally? From Stein? What did this mean? Considering her terrible marks in field work and her state of perpetual partnerlessness (one day she promised) she would have never expected the professor to specifically assign her to anything.

 

“Careful Maka, I think your eyebrows are trying to escape from your face,” Blackstar snickered. 

 

Maka scowled and furrowed her brows. “Shut up Blackstar.” She turned to Tsubaki. “Thanks Tsubaki. I’ll see you later then?”

 

“Bye Maka! See you later!”

 

“Try not to fail this one too!”

 

Maka grit her teeth and set out to Stein’s room. It wasn’t too far, all she had to do was turn right here and—

 

almost crash into her partner from her last mission.

 

“Ah sorry,” the girl stammered as both skid to a halt. “I should really watch—” she faltered as she looked up to see who she was talking to. All apology left the Guard’s eyes and the two stared at each other. There was palpable tension between them. The girl dropped her gaze first. Tightening her grip on the books clutched to her chest, she turned and walked away without another word. People around the hall were staring at the incredibly awkward encounter, but Maka convinced herself that she didn’t care. They already whispered about her lack of a Guard. This was just another thing to gossip about in their petty miserable lives. Besides, she didn’t even remember the girl’s name. And she really didn’t care enough to try to.

 

Maka clenched her fists and continued down the hall. As she rounded the corner, Stein’s room came into sight.

 

And so did that creepy asshole.

 

He was standing in front of the door, staring at the doorknob as if he were too lazy to turn it. She felt her mood sour as she stomped over to the door. He startled and looked up, creepy red eyes flickering to her own before settling on the thick gauze in the middle of her face. Which pissed her off even more. 

 

“You got a problem?” she growled, glaring at him threateningly. 

 

His eyes went back to hers before going back to the door. “Someone’s awfully grouchy.”

 

She wanted to scream.

 

Instead she wrenched open the door without knocking and went inside. Even if he had gotten there first, she was the one who had actually opened the door first and therefore she had the right of way.

 

Stein looked up from his desk. “Oh Maka, you’re here,” he said with a cigarette hanging from his lips. He looked at the door that had just been violently slammed open. “And Soul too. Come on in.”

 

She stared at him in shock before turning to stare at the asshole _who was coming in too why was he here too nooo no no this couldn’t be happening why cruel world why—_

 

“So,” Stein said, clapping his hands together easily, completely unaware (or ignoring) Maka’s state of intense turmoil, “let’s start with introductions. Maka this is Soul Evans. Soul, this is Maka Albarn. Both of you have trouble finding a consistent partner.”

 

She knew where this was heading even before the professor had started talking but she refused to accept it. She stared at Stein in disbelief as dread began to pile up in her head.

 

“So I’m pairing you two up with each other for this mission.”

 

There was silence in the room.

 

“You- you can’t just- pair me up with… _him!”_ she sputtered. _Anyone but him anyone but him._

 

“What’s wrong with _me?_ ” He growled, freaky sharp teeth becoming visible. “You don’t even know me.”

 

“I know you’re an asshole who—”

 

“Whoah, let’s all just calm down here,” Stein cut through while holding his hands up in a placating manner. “It seems you two already know each other.”

 

“Not really.”

 

“Why would I want to know him?”

 

They glared at each other before turning away.

 

Stein blew out, who would have guessed, _even more smoke_ as he sighed. “Like it or not, you two will have to learn to work with each other. Midterms are coming up and for third years, unless you have a partner who has accompanied you for more than 5 missions, you’ll be automatically expelled.”

 

Maka turned back to stare at Stein in shock. She hadn’t known this. Was this a new rule?

 

Stein seemed to know what she was thinking since his next words were “This had never been an issue until now so we don’t normally teach it. Which is probably why you’ve never heard of it.”

 

“But professor, anyone but—”

 

“This isn’t up for negotiation. You and Evans will be taking this mission as well as the next 4 I give you. There isn’t anymore time to find another partner for you two since neither of you have meet the requirements in the _three years_ you’ve been here.” His glasses glinted threateningly in the light. “Have I made myself clear?”

 

Maka slumped in defeat. “Yes professor.” 

 

Soul slouched in defeat. “Yes professor.”

 

Stein smiled in a mad scientist sort of way. “Good. You’re assignment is in Las Vegas. There are 3 kishin, 2 class Cs and a class B. Here’s the details.” He handed Soul a folder. “I wish you the best of luck seeing as everything is riding on this. You’re dismissed.”

 

Maka couldn’t have gotten out of the door any quicker. As soon as Soul had closed the door she got close to him.

 

“Listen here,” she hissed, getting some satisfaction that he was shorter than her probably because of his slouching. “Don’t mess this up for me. We just have to deal with 5 missions and then we’re free. If this is going to work you have to _listen to me_. Got it?” 

 

He sneered. “What makes you think I’ll just blindly follow you? You’re judgement is completely screwed up.”

 

She seethed. “You— how could you just— ugh you know what? Fine! It’s just 5 missions anyway. I can deal with your stupidity for just 5.”

 

“Fine.”

 

“Fine.”

 

“Fine.”

 

“Fine.”

 

“Fine.”

 

She groaned and pulled her pigtails. “What are you? A child that has to have the last word?”

 

“If anyone’s the child it’s you. I was just answering and you just _had_ to keep going.”

 

She glared at him. “You know what? I don’t want to deal this. Fine.” She stomped away.

 

“Fine.” He called from behind her.

 

“Fine!” She yelled back.

 

“Fine!”

 

She wanted to scream.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea how broken noses work
> 
> or how smoking does
> 
> whoops


End file.
